Carol's solo dream

HERE'S a conversation I never thought I'd be having - a catch up with Carol Decker, the flame haired frontwoman of Eighties pop-rockers T'Pau, round her mum's house in Coventry. And, thinking about it, that's pretty odd, because if you cast your eye over the platinum selling career she built for herself between 1986 and 1991, you might have imagined she'd still have been racking up the charts hits alongside people like Madonna - someone Carol earned many a comparison to back in the day for her spirited performances and legendary temper.

HERE'S a conversation I never thought I'd be having - a catch up with Carol Decker, the flame haired frontwoman of Eighties pop-rockers T'Pau, round her mum's house in Coventry.

And, thinking about it, that's pretty odd, because if you cast your eye over the platinum selling career she built for herself between 1986 and 1991, you might have imagined she'd still have been racking up the charts hits alongside people like Madonna - someone Carol earned many a comparison to back in the day for her spirited performances and legendary temper.

China in Your Hands, the band's most enduring single, was the longest-running number one in 1987. It held onto the top spot for six weeks.

"We got that number one while we were in Germany," Carol smiles. "Our manager rang to tell us the top five, and George Harrison was at number two." One above a Beatle? "Yes, it was a great feeling."

As one half of T'Pau's writing team (the band's rhythm guitarist and Carol's former partner, Ronnie Rogers, completed the duo), Carol might also have been expected to follow her Eighties cohorts Cathy Dennis and OMD's Andy McCluskey into penning tunes for other people. But instead Carol opted to maintain a low profile, focusing on raising her young family.

"I was 28 when I got my deal. A lot of people think I was this young girl, but I'd been playing the pubs and clubs circuit in Shropshire for years," remembers Carol.

"When we split, for a while it was difficult to adjust to not being in that fast moving career. For a couple of years I didn't know what to do."

She moved to LA and kept writing - the only thing she did know was that she wasn't ready to bow out of music altogether.

"There's always been a steady flow of work," says Carol, "and then, in 1996, Will Ashurst built a new T'Pau around me. I didn't want to do it but he thought it was a brand name we should build on.

"We made one album called Red and toured Europe with Status Quo. By that time, I'd met my husband. I had my daughter Scarlet in 1998 and went back on the road."

Since then, she's dabbled in a bit of acting - performing Mum's The Word in the West End, playing Steven Berkoff's wife in crime-comedy Nine Dead Guys and filling various smaller roles in day time soaps.

Embraced

Today, five year old Dylan runs round her feet demanding crisps, and it's clear Carol has also fully embraced family life.

But we're here because Carol is putting out her first single as a solo artist. She's teamed back up with Ronnie and she's utilising the wonders of the digital age to put out Just Dream, a melodic ballad with a distinct dance beat, through online outlets like iTunes.

News of her return has got the reality shows knocking at her door; she's had 'lots' of offers, including one from I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.

"It's no place for a woman of my age," laughs Carol, who turns 50 in September, although she's no stranger to the format, having found herself in the runner up spot on BBC celebrity singing competition Just the Two of Us in January.

Her presence on the live scene with the Here and Now tours, which she regularly performs at alongside the likes of Belinda Carlisle, Midge Ure, Toyah Willcox and Paul Young, is finally paying off then. But it's taken something very special to get her back into the studio.

"Ron and I came up with a great song. We hadn't written for over 10 years and hadn't had a hit for 15. We had to put everything on the backburner.

"Now I'm working on an album and we'll see what comes after that. For me, T'Pau is very much in the early 1990s and it makes a difference to me to be working under my own name. It means I'm not trying to be something I used to be."

Just Dream is available for download now. Click here for more information.